Chapter X: Some Chinese Seaports and Commerce 205 (7)

As doctors, Chinese women have already proved their efficiency, and the names of Dr. Ida Kahn and Dr. Mary Stone are everywhere held in high respect.[26] In the new Rockefeller Medical School at Peking women students are admitted, and girls as soon as it was announced entered their names. In various parts of China women are training for the medical profession, as well as in Great Britain and America. I was greatly impressed by the nurses also in various hospitals, especially those in the Women’s Hospital at Swatow. There had been over a hundred and thirty midwifery cases in the previous six months, and Dr. Heyworth told me she had been able to leave nearly all of them to her Chinese assistants and nurses. They are often sent for to visit outlying villages and they are doing splendid work. What is everywhere the one essential is to have thoroughly competent foreigners to train Chinese girls till such time as native training schools in Western methods have been established.

_Chapter IX_

_The Youth of China_

“Crabbèd Age and Youth
Cannot live together:
Youth is full of pleasance,
Age is full of care;
Youth like summer morn,
Age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave,
Age like winter bare.
Youth is full of sport,
Age’s breath is short;
Youth is nimble, Age is lame;
Youth is hot and bold,
Age is weak and cold;
Youth is wild, and Age is tame.
Age, I do abhor thee;
Youth, I do adore thee.”

—_The Passionate Pilgrim._

_Chapter IX_

_The Youth of China_

The Spirit of Youth is one of the most marvellous possessions of humanity. It is not possessed by young people in all countries, nor indeed by all the young in any country, or at any given time. We heard a good deal about Young Turkey and Young Egypt, but neither of those countries have the Spirit of Youth, nor had China until quite recently. Of all the poets Shakespeare speaks most of this Spirit of Youth, for he lived in a time when it shone forth resplendent, spelling high endeavour, the joy of life, ardour, courage, chivalry, beauty, faith. It has its drawbacks, of course—conceit, wilfulness, turbulence, impatience of control, of law, of order. But it is a splendid thing, and the salvation of a weary world.

“There are four seasons in the mind of man:
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring’s honey’d cud of youthful thought he loves
To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
Is nearest unto heaven.”

This spirit of youth has taken possession of the student world of China to-day, and is mainly responsible for the rapidly changing mettle of the whole race. It is frequently in sharp antagonism to the traditions of the past, as for instance with regard to age itself. The reverence due to age is a great quality and has been of untold value to the Chinese, but carried to the extreme of veneration it has arrested progress and has won a false value.

In the old days all positions of importance were given to middle-aged or elderly men—men of weight. Such a fact as Pitt becoming prime minister at the age of twenty-four would have seemed to them grotesque and foolish in the extreme. That a young man should be a man of weight was unthinkable. But now you find young Chinamen in most responsible posts, as their nation’s representatives at the court of St. James, or in Paris or Washington. It is a young Chinaman who by his eloquence and personality wins the admission of China to the Council of the League of Nations. They are men who have all had Western training, but that alone does not account for their influence.

From one end of China to the other I found that the temper of the youth was wholly unlike what it was ten years ago (on the occasion of my last visit), although the change had already begun then. Not only is the veneration for the aged changing, but also the veneration for antiquity, which has been one of the greatest hindrances to progress in the past. Everywhere the young people are taking upon themselves an active share in local affairs and also in affairs of the State. Sometimes this shows itself in rather an amusing way and sometimes with regard to matters of vast importance. Of the latter it will suffice to mention the decision of the Republican Government to make Confucianism the state religion. No sooner was the announcement made than from every quarter the Government was bombarded with telegrams from bodies of students, protesting “we will not have Confucianism as a state religion”; and they won the day.

As an instance of the authority of students in local matters, I came across a college, a member of which had gone to study in Japan. He was engaged to be married to a Chinese girl, but fell a victim to the charms of a Japanese girl and married her. On his return he decided, after some difficulties with the family of his fiancée, to marry her as his secondary wife. Then the students were all up in arms. He had committed the crime against patriotism of marrying a Japanese, and now, forsooth, he would add another by taking a Chinese girl as secondary to the Japanese! They not only forbade him to do this, but also fined him a heavy sum of money and _made him pay it_.

The Japanese question has roused every student community in this empire, and they have allied themselves with merchants on the subject—an entirely new combination. They have not merely shown their feelings by extensive looting and destruction of Japanese goods, and boycotting of them in the markets, but after the Treaty of Versailles they rose as one man to execrate the officials who were concerned with the betrayal of Chinese interests to Japan, and demanded that they should be dismissed from office. All the schools and colleges went on strike and hundreds of students were imprisoned. In vain the Government tried to put down the movement, but it was so universal, and had so won the support of the shopkeepers (these put up their shutters with notices that this was done in support of the students’ demands), that the Government was again forced to give way and punish the offenders.

While much is known here of the divided political condition of China, but little is heard of this important solidarity. The importance of such occurrences lies mainly in the fact that these are the outward signs of a “Tide of New Thought,” as it has been called in Chinese. This new vitality is pulsating more or less through the people of the whole empire, but especially and with intense vigour in the student world. It has driven them to violent and undisciplined action, so that many people see in it the germs of revolution. But one must not forget that the political Revolution has already become an accomplished fact, and that the new movement is mainly one of educational and social reform, and that the political faith of students is Republicanism. The anti-Japanese feeling is due to the determined infiltration of the Japanese into the country, and more especially their action with regard to Shantung. Japan lost a priceless opportunity of making alliance with China and vindicating herself before the world, when she broke faith with regard to giving back Tsingtau to China at the end of the war. This has had important results on the student movement by leading the students to rapid concerted action and showing them their power to control the action of Government. However, this is but a temporary matter, while the recent literary and social renaissance is likely to have a permanent influence on the national life.

The effect of the new movement on literature of all kinds is particularly interesting. The daily press and the reviews and magazines are full of new thoughts and reflect all the currents of opinion of the Western world. The critical spirit leaves no problem unstudied; the political agitation in India, the Sinn Fein outrages in Ireland, the labour troubles in England are accurately reported in the Chinese daily press. Judgment is being passed on the results of our civilization, and the future shaping of China’s destiny depends largely on that judgment.

One of the most momentous days in all the history of the race was when the Dowager Empress decided to sweep away the old system of education after her great defeat by the Western Powers in 1900. It was an amazing _volte-face_ on the part of one of the most bigoted autocrats that the world has seen. She saw that the root of all her difficulties in finding the right kind of officials was lack of well-educated persons in the social class from which such officials are chosen, so she issued an edict in 1904 which bore the stamp of Yüan Shih-k’ai and Chang Chih-tung, destroying at one blow the old educational system. The document is curious and even a little pathetic. She ordained that graduation in the new colleges should be the only way to official position, pointing out that colleges had been in existence more than two thousand five hundred years ago, and that the classical essay system was quite modern—only having existed about five hundred years.

She also gave orders that more students should be sent to Europe and America—some were already going there—instead of to Japan, whose revolutionary influence she mistrusted.

The greatest difficulty in effecting so great a change was to find teachers fitted for the task. The seed had happily been planted during the last half-century in mission schools, and from them a certain small supply of teachers was obtainable. Chang Chih-tung considered that three months’ study of textbooks would make a competent teacher! Another immense difficulty was to find funds for so vast an enterprise. The gentry were urged to found and support schools, and an official button was granted to those who did so. Chang Chih-tung worked out the whole scheme: colleges, schools of various grades, curricula, regulations as to discipline, etc. etc. All these things are set forth in five official volumes, and thus the national system of education was inaugurated. Obviously so great a change could not be wrought without many difficulties cropping up. The main difficulty was lack of discipline, and that is the case to-day; the student considers that he, or she (for the same spirit pervades girls’ schools), ought to dictate to the master, instead of master to pupil. In the early days of the system it was the easier for the pupils to succeed, in that so many of the teachers were wholly inexperienced and were afraid of losing their posts unless they gave way. Although the above edict professes to train men in China itself for official positions it was supplemented by provision for sending students abroad, in order that they might be the better able to bring their country into line with Western civilization.

With the coming of a Republican Government further progress was made in the educational system in connexion with change in the language, of which I have given details in Chapter II. The most important fact with regard to the educational change is that it found a prepared soil in which to grow, and there is reason to believe that the roots are striking deep. The rapidity with which Japan adopted Western ideas is known to every one, for it has enabled her to become a world power by developing her army, navy and commerce in an incredibly short space of time. She has used Western science as the tool to secure military glory and territorial expansion. These are not the things which appeal to the Chinese. Their renaissance is on wholly different lines. Their gaze is turned inward rather than outward, and the things of the foreign world interest them mainly as shedding light on their own problems. This is the one characteristic of the old Chinese temper which remains unchanged. The fierce ray of criticism is turned on their own past; history, art, philosophy and literature are now being sifted to see what is their actual value. But the chief object of study in China to-day is man himself, his progress and welfare, both in this world and in the next.[27]

The decay of the old religions must have a great influence on student life, and the fact that a large proportion of the temples are now used as school buildings is proof—if proof be needed—that the use for them as temples has gone. Many people have thought it a great step in advance that the old superstitions are being swept away; but what is to take their place? The Chinese are feeling after a more philosophical form of religion. Men like Yen Hsi Shan spend time daily in meditation and worship of the one true God. The tide of rationalism and positivism in Europe has swept even as far as the shores of China, and has influenced many thoughtful men. In an important journal called _La Jeunesse_, a well-known Chinese writer, Peng-I-Hu, says, “I am not a member of any church, I am not interested in protecting any organization or advocating the excellency of any particular religious faith. But I have often felt that religion contains within it the highest ethics, and so I think that if we want imperfect mankind to make progress towards perfection, we cannot lightly set religion aside.”

Large numbers of students have come into contact with Christianity, and at this moment more than ever before they are critically examining what it is worth. By means of the literature dealing with the higher criticism (which is to be found in all the cities of China), they are familiar with the problems confronting students in the West: and these problems interest them immensely. But in the long run it is not so much theory as practice that will influence young China in its religious beliefs.

In the past, Chinese students have mainly got their Western education in Western schools and colleges, where Christian doctrine is an important part of the curriculum. They have had the opportunity of studying the lives of their teachers and judging the practical value of Christian ideals. Where use has been made of such institutions for political or commercial propaganda, the result is obvious; but this has been the rare exception in the past, though there seems to be a growing tendency to it in certain recent institutions. Governments which complain of the difficulties which missions have brought into international relations, have often in the past made use of these same difficulties to promote their own interest. No more cynical statement could be made than that of the German Government with regard to Shantung about the murder of two German missionaries: “La Providence a voulu que la nécessité de venger le massacre de nos missionaires nous amenât a acquérir une place commerciale de première importance.” The Chinese have long memories, and they will not forget such things. It is foolish to expect people to discriminate accurately between the actions of a foreign power and the missions of the same race.

The worst indictment that can be made against the missionaries and their institutions, in my opinion, is that their teaching has been in some cases narrow and in many cases superficial for want of sufficient teachers and educational requisites, due to lack of funds. The strain on missionary societies to supply these funds has been far heavier than the general public is aware of, and the need has been only met by a small section of the Christian community. Had the community as a whole realized their responsibility, China would have had better and more thorough teaching: even now it is not too late to help her in the great educational enterprise on which she has embarked. America is alive to the fact, but England is not. One great step in advance is, however, in course of achievement, and that is the union of the greater number of the different societies in the work of central colleges and universities, which is a great gain, both from the educational and the religious point of view.

At the present time the one vital requisite for China is to have a thoroughly efficient training in all branches of education, especially, of those men who are to be her leaders. Statesmen, lawyers, doctors, engineers, bankers, men of science, literature and art are needed, and all must, above all things, be men of high purpose and spotless integrity. It is the corruption of men in authority which has brought China to so low a condition, and which hinders her taking her place among the ruling nations. Obviously she is not in a position to-day to do this without help. The students in training to-day number roughly eight millions, not to mention the vast number of boys employed in agriculture and industry, who also have a claim to teaching. One interesting feature of the student movement is the sense of obligation now growing up amongst the students to share their knowledge with their poorer neighbours. Night schools are being established by them (in which they teach) not only for poor children, but also for farmers, labourers, etc., in all parts of the country. They also give popular lectures on such subjects as hygiene, patriotism and politics.

During the terrible famine raging last winter, numbers of students did relief work, and not only helped the sufferers, but had valuable practical training in organized social service. Another feature of the movement is this social service; here again trained leaders are urgently needed. The experience which we have so painfully gained during the last century we ought surely to share with them.

There are very few purely Chinese educational institutes of the highest grade. The most important of any is without doubt the National University of Peking, founded twenty-three years ago. Under the influence of the present Chancellor, Tsai Yuanpei, it has become an efficient school and centre of the new educational movement. He has collected a staff of men trained in Western thought to replace the former inefficient elderly staff. The present Minister of Education, Fan Yuen Zien, made a trip to Europe and America in 1918, and as a result of it has initiated a scheme for having special scholars from the West to become annual lecturers at the university. The first appointment was John Dewey, from Columbia, U.S.A., then Bertrand Russell, from Cambridge, England, and now it seems likely that Bergson will be invited from France and Einstein from Germany. This suggests the spirit of the new learning. Such a Minister of Education has much influence, and is promoting a liberal educational policy. The university has departments of Law, Literature and Science. Its influence is felt not only in Peking, but throughout the country.

The Hong Kong University is of considerable importance, but as the teaching is entirely in English, that is still a bar to many students. It was started by Sir Frederick Lugard, and with the generous help of many Chinese and a wealthy Parsee merchant, not to mention the grant of a magnificent site by the Government of Hong Kong, the university was launched in 1912. It was established mainly for the use of the Chinese, but open to “students of all races, nationalities and creeds,” and was to promote the “maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring Republic of China”—so runs the Hong Kong Government ordinance of 1911. The first three chairs established were Medicine, Applied Science, and Arts. In order to meet the needs of men adopting an official career in China, the requisite Chinese subjects are included.

A new university has been already planned by a Chinese merchant at Amoy, Mr. Dan, and I visited the site on which it is to be built. The donor is a man of humble birth. He has already founded boys’ and girls’ schools near Amoy on most generous and modern lines, of which further details are given in the following chapter. Although not a member of any Christian body, he is most generous in lending the buildings for Christian conferences and allowing absolute liberty to Christian teachers in his schools to give religious teaching to the scholars out of school hours.

Having referred to one of the most important non-religious educational institutions for the Chinese, I will mention the most important missionary ones. Of these St. John’s College, Shanghai, is one of the oldest and most efficient, and is responsible for the training of some of the leading men in China to-day. Recently the college has added Medicine to the subjects taught in what has now become the St. John’s University. It grants degrees, and is in close touch with American universities. There are two other American denominational universities, and five union and interdenominational universities, also many important colleges, such as the Anglo-Chinese College at Tientsin, the Trinity College at Foochow, the Canton Christian College, the Hangchow College, the Shanghai Baptist College, etc. etc.; but what are these in comparison with the millions of China?

One very grave drawback to the present state of educational affairs is that our British universities have made no attempt to recognize the degrees and diplomas granted by these colleges and universities with the exception of the Hong Kong University, which has a special charter to that effect. Whereas in America every university of importance welcomes Chinese students for post-graduate study and grants them diplomas, not one of our universities does this. All the students study the English language, and every year sees them more prepared to make use of training in our universities; but those educationists who know China best are convinced that it is far better for her sons and daughters to study in their own land till they have got a good sound general education, and then come to England, say at the age of about twenty; they will then be able to gain much more from what they see and learn than they could do at an earlier age. With a mature judgment they will not be so apt to get false impressions, as they are otherwise likely to do, and will know how to select from the wealth of knowledge to which they have access.

Nowadays the question of child labour is being considered, and this is the more important because factories are springing up everywhere. Field labour is hard on child life, but not nearly so injurious as factory life. A large part of this industrial expansion is American and European; therefore it is a grave responsibility for such firms to ensure that the Chinese shall see Western industrialism at its best, especially as regards the welfare of children and women.

It would be neglecting a matter of great potential importance to the future of young China if the history of the Scout Movement were omitted. Curiously enough it seems to have been started at New York, by the Chinese Students’ Club, in 1910, and from there to have been carried to China itself about a couple of years later. In 1915 there was a special rally of scout troops from Canton and Shanghai, in which three hundred boys took part, and Chinese boys figured at the great scout Jamboree in England in 1920, when twenty thousand boys of all races met in one great Brotherhood. The movement has been so far mainly promoted by missionary institutions, who have wisely recognized its attractiveness and importance to Chinese boys. The great difficulty has been to find suitable scoutmasters, but time should mend this. The Scout Rule is the same here as elsewhere, and membership is open to every class of the community. Its international value is a matter of no small importance.

A natural question arises in every one’s mind with regard to the possibility of maintaining the same high spirit in a troop of Oriental boys as in an English troop, where tradition already helps this so tremendously. I make no apology for quoting a striking illustration from a recent magazine article of the fact that the Scout spirit of honour, of preparedness, of active goodwill and of physical fitness is found in Chinese scouts. “The young captain of the ‘soccer’ team was visibly nettled. The game was a stiff one. His team were all, like himself, Chinese boys at the Griffith John College, in Central China. But a forward had ‘muffed’ an open shot at goal and a half-back had ‘funked’ tackling a big fast forward of the opposing team, while one or two of the opponents had run perilously near to fouling.

“So his nerve had got ‘rattled.’ One of the English masters was watching the game. He was also Scoutmaster of the troop in which the Chinese boy was a scout of some standing. He saw the boy fast losing his temper. Suddenly, in a momentary lull in the game, the master from touch whistled the refrain of the Scout Call.

“In a flash the Chinese boy-captain realized the childishness of his action and recovered himself. His face broke into its old customary smile. With a laugh he rallied his side and swung forward with them. They won the match.” (_Outward Bound._)

To sum up the main points of the student situation: their actual demands at the present time are for self-determination, self-government and the abolition of the Tuchun system, namely the military government of the provinces. If these are their demands, it is well to consider what they have already accomplished: they have created a student organization, with unions in every part of the country; they have broken down sex prejudice in an extraordinary way; they have aroused the interest of the masses of the common people; and they have proved strong enough to alter Government action. These are things which certainly justify their title to serious consideration of their demands.

There is a wonderful spirit of hope and courage growing up, and it is worth noting that this new nationalism has been singularly free from the outrages to be found in popular movements in the West. The natural ebullience—to use an ugly but expressive word—of youth has on the whole shown itself wiser and more keen-sighted than could have been expected under the circumstances, and gives great hope for the future. The special stress laid on social service and voluntary work is of great promise, and missions may justly claim that it is the outcome of their work for the sick, the insane, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the orphans and the poor. They have put an ideal before the race, and the young are accepting it.

_Chapter X_

_Some Chinese Seaports and Commerce_

“The problems of the Pacific are to my mind the world problems
of the next fifty years or more. In these problems we are, as
an Empire, very vitally interested. Three of the dominions
border on the Pacific; India is next door; there, too, are
the United States and Japan. There, also, in China the fate
of the greatest human population on earth will have to be
decided. There Europe, Asia and America are meeting, and
there, I believe, the next great chapter in human history
will be enacted. I ask myself, what will be the character of
that history? Will it be along the old lines? Will it be the
old spirit of national and imperial domination which has been
the undoing of Europe? Or shall we have learned our lesson?
Shall we have purged our souls in the fires through which we
have passed? Will it be a future of peaceful co-operation, of
friendly co-ordination of all the vast interests at stake?
Shall we act in continuous friendly consultation in the true
spirit of a society of nations?”—GENERAL SMUTS.

_Chapter X_

_Some Chinese Seaports and Commerce_

Last year I went down the China coast twice from Shanghai to Hong Kong, and it is a most interesting trip, especially if you stop at the ports and see their multitudinous activities. Their variety is most striking: no two are alike, and even the sails are different in every port down the coast.

I have already spoken of Hangchow, capital of Chekiang, so the next on my list is Wênchowfu, in the same province. The approach to it is up a lovely creek and river, as fair a scene as can be imagined. When I looked at it in the evening light from the top of a hill, the wealth of vegetation and the network of river and canals for irrigation show how rich the land is; the waterways are also the roads by which the district is most easily visited. Besides lofty trees, there were clumps of bamboo, which seem to be used for every imaginable purpose. They grow an inch in a night, and it is usual for bamboos to grow thirty inches in a month: this is their average height, but some varieties grow to 120 feet. Then they put out numerous shoots and the main stems harden. The delicate shoots are eaten like asparagus, and the seeds are also used as food: there is a Chinese proverb that they are specially numerous when the rice crop fails. The stem is high and hard and jointed: one joint is big enough to make an excellent bucket, another will be used for a bottle or a cooking vessel, and the outer shell is so siliceous that it acts as a whetstone.

On reaching Wênchowfu I took a ricksha and went in search of the missionaries. Though an unexpected guest, I received a friendly welcome from Mr. and Mrs. Slichter, of the China Inland Mission, and they took me to see the city and surroundings. It is a treaty port, facing the Eastern Sea, and its streets are bright and clean, full of attractive shops. Inlaid soapstone is one charming industry: the silks manufactured here are fine and costly, two or three dollars per foot. The people are brusque and independent in their manners, but very responsive to missionary work, and they become staunch and loyal adherents to Christianity. We visited an interesting temple put up recently by the local trade guilds to two officers who refused to acknowledge the Republic. These guilds are thoroughly democratic and date from time immemorial: they are still all-powerful in China and regulate trade throughout the empire, despite the changing times. Every self-respecting merchant belongs to one. The guilds are now showing signs of dealing with the price of labour, which is a highly significant fact. They do not brook Government interference with their members, of whom they take a sort of paternal care.[28] These guilds are not only of great value to the Chinese, but also to foreigners, who can apply to their members either directly or by agents, called compradores, belonging to the same guild, whom foreigners can employ to transact business for them. In Canton there are no less then seventy-two guilds.

We went to visit an English United Methodist community, but as it was Saturday afternoon we found no one at home. They have a large work in a hundred and fifty stations, but only one European worker! They also have a big hospital, but their one and only English doctor had been absent two years on furlough, leaving it in charge of two Chinese doctors: they have no English nurse. It is really deplorable to see such a condition of things and a slur on England’s good name. As a contrast we found excellent work both as to numbers and quality by the Chinese, of whom the C.I.M. have three hundred voluntary workers in their hundred and sixty-eight stations. Their evangelists give one week per month of service without payment, and the local institutions pay their salaries. The Christian Endeavour is a particularly strong branch of the work, and has produced a body of capable workers, one main object of the society being to train men, women and children to take part in Christian service of some kind. Bible schools are another strong point of the work here, and the interest shown in Bible study augurs well for the future of the mission.

It may be thought that I have said a great deal—too much in fact—about mission work in this book, but that is inevitable, because the reforms initiated in Chinese life are practically all due to missionary activity. The education of the poor and of women, the care of the sick, the blind, the insane, were all started by missions, and they are the main agencies in undertaking relief work in famine and plague measures, even at the present day. While the people of England sent out thirty thousand pounds for famine last year, large additional sums were sent out by the missionary societies, of which there is of course no official recognition. Happily England still retains some modesty with regard to her generosity.

My next halting-place was Foochow; this visit was one of the most delightful events of the trip. The coasting steamers cannot go up the river, so it is necessary to tranship on to a launch at Pagoda Anchorage. We had spent more than six hours waiting to cross the bar, and it was a lovely sight at dawn to see all the myriads of fishing-boats; as we came slowly up the river they looked like flocks of birds with widespread wings. It was nine miles up to the city, and as we reached a stopping-place I inquired from a fellow-passenger if it were the place for me to get off, but was told the main landing-stage was further up. Before reaching it a pleasant young Chinaman asked in excellent English if he could be of service; having heard me mention the C.M.S., said he belonged to it. He was most helpful, took charge of my luggage, escorted me to the office where he was employed, telephoned to Trinity College to say I had arrived, got tea, and finally set me on the road with a guide. Mr. L. K. Wang certainly was a credit to his school. I met my kind hostess, Mrs. Norton, on the road to meet me with her servant, having already sent him down three times that morning to look for me. The arrival of steamers is a most uncertain business.

Foochow is a treaty port and of no great antiquity: it was founded in the fourteenth century and was opened to foreign trade in 1861. The population is reckoned from six to eight hundred thousand, and it is the headquarters of an ever-increasing number of foreign firms in consequence of its growing trade. The tea trade is the most important. The city lies on both banks of the river, and there are two long bridges called the Bridge of the Ten Thousand Ages connected by a little island, leading from one part of the city to the other. We took about an hour in swift-running rickshas to go from the college to the centre of the city on the further side of the river to visit Miss Faithfull-Davies’ school. It was just breaking up for the summer holidays, as also Miss Waring’s girls’ school, which we visited another day; but we saw in full swing schools for the blind,[29] which seem to be admirably conducted, and an orphanage, where there was an elaborate plant design in the garden made by the boys. I asked if it was the name of the school, but was told it was the date of “the day of shame,” namely of the Japanese triumph; it is striking to see how deeply this is felt everywhere and that it should show itself in such a manner.

_Page 209_]

It rained and rained and rained at Foochow, and the floods rose high round the garden, which is situated on a hill, till we could no longer go through the main entrance. It was dreadfully disappointing, as it put all excursions out of the question. However, the days flew past with great rapidity, and I went on visiting hospitals and schools; the school of sericulture was interesting, and we saw the various processes. On leaving, the director paid me the compliment of offering me a handful of worms! One of the most interesting forms of lacquer work, for which Foochow is famous, is that done on silk. Bowls are made of it and are as light as a feather and flexible. They take about eight to twelve months to make and are wonderfully resistant to water and heat, so that they can be boiled without injury. Other beautiful lacquer things are made on finely carved wood, and the lacquer is most lovely in colour when gold and silver dust are used. They wrap the articles up in the softest, toughest, thinnest paper I have ever seen; it feels like silk.

It was a matter of continual interest to me to be living in the middle of a college, and to see the four hundred boys and youths at work and play. Trinity College is so called because it is part of the Dublin University Fukien Mission, and was the result of the Pan-Anglican Conference in London, 1908. The three schools already existed and were combined to form this college in 1912; a beautiful chapel was also built, a gymnasium, houses for the masters, and a vernacular middle school in memory of the martyr, Robert Stewart. The spirit of the place was fine, and I once again realized how far ahead the mission field is in the spirit of unity and progress, when the headmaster asked me, woman and Nonconformist, to address the boys in the chapel: it was an inspiring audience.

I began to be afraid as the floods continued to rise that it would be a difficult matter to leave Foochow. In order to reach the shipping office (to take my passage) we had to go through the streets in boats, and actually through a garden to the window of the office. Boys were having a great time punting precariously on doors, which served as rafts, and headlong plunges into the water were greeted with shrieks of laughter. I left next day, with the water still rising, and was truly sorry to say good-bye to my friends and Foochow.

The launch took me rapidly down stream to the steamer _Haiching_ which was due to sail at dawn, and the storm clouds and driving rain formed a fine background to the encircling mountains. All down the China coast the scenery is wild, and innumerable rocky islands make navigation very dangerous. The captain beguiled us at meals with stories of the dangers we were encountering in this “dirty weather.” When the weather is bad in the Pacific it alters all the currents round the coast, although the surface may look smooth. At one point he used to allow a margin of seven miles to round certain rocks, yet found himself one day just shaving round them: after that experience he allowed ten miles. The weather is continually wet and foggy in these seas, but this season was exceptionally bad, and for the first time in his experience there had been no cargo from Foochow.

The boat bobbed up and down like a cork. There was a fine mascot on board in the shape of a black sow. She was very clean and very dainty, with an appetite for chocolates, and oranges, which she required to be peeled. She had been five years on board and had gone through the campaign, when the ship visited Basra and other places on war duty. The captain was warm in praise of his Chinese crew, preferring them to all other nationalities: they do their work well and contentedly and require no bullying. A voyage of twenty-four hours brought us to smooth water outside Amoy, and the cook from the English Presbyterian ladies’ house came at 6.30 in a sampan to take me ashore, for there is no landing-stage. It was still raining and very hot.

Amoy is a most extraordinary place, with round black rocks like puddings in every direction. One of the features of the place is the little graves, just like plates on the surface of the ground, due to the curious way they deal with the dead. After they have been buried for a certain length of time, they take up the coffins and carefully count the bones that none may be missing and put them in a jar with a lid on: it is this lid which shows when the jar is put in the earth.

I found my kind hostesses overwhelmed with work, but they nobly made time to take me to see the various schools and colleges, and also a visiting missionary took me across the bay to visit some alms-houses (built by a Chinese lady) and also the first Chinese church built in Amoy. The pastor took us by a delightful paved pathway to see a noted Buddhist shrine. I have occasionally met Buddhist present-day saints, but here I saw one in the making. He is enclosed in a hole in a rock and is locked in, as if in a cage; once a day his food is brought and we saw a monk unlock the door and put it in, speaking no word. The embryo saint must never speak. It takes several years of this stultifying life to attain sainthood. A much more attractive Buddhist was one of the attendants at the temple, on whose head I observed the marks of branding. I asked our guide to inquire how he had endured the torture, and his face quite lighted up as he replied: “Your Christ felt no suffering on the cross, nor did I for the joy of winning salvation.”

A charming Chinese secretary, Mr. Wang, showed us over the Y.M.C.A., which has the most picturesque building imaginable amongst the black boulders, to one of which there is a bright red paved causeway. Mr. Wang took us into the Chamber of Commerce, where we met two Edinburgh trained engineers who are engaged on a scheme for sanitation and a new road. Almost every city in China now has a Chamber of Commerce: this is quite a modern innovation and is a Government concern under the Ministry of Commerce. Only rich merchants can belong to them because the fees are so high. They are not very popular among the people because of their attitude during the student strikes; but they have a certain value for general trade purposes, although the guilds are much more important.

I had pleasant evenings at our consulate and at the postal commissioners’, making the acquaintance of the British and American colony. Their gardens were gay with flowers. But again the rain came down, and when we visited a Chinese school at Chien Be our day was rather spoilt by it. Mr. Wang borrowed a little steam launch to take us there, as it is a considerable distance away. He told us how Mr. Dan had made a fortune in the Straits Settlements, where he had seen much of the British and had conceived a desire to imitate their philanthropy. Having had little education as a boy he decided to build schools and finally a university on European lines. He was his own architect, and had succeeded in building spacious and well-planned school house, dormitories, etc.; he is now putting up a similar school for girls. At present they are housed in a neighbouring village, while Mr. Dan and his family live in a cottage in the simplest manner possible. It is really a fine place and most generously supported in every way. The salaries of teachers are from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars, whereas in the missions they receive five dollars. This is one of the new difficulties confronting all missions: the salaries of their workers must be quadrupled in order to approach those of Government and other employees.

I left Amoy in pouring rain and had a good little voyage to Swatow on a most comfortable steamer, reaching it at 6 a.m. Here again one has to go ashore in a sampan, and the ladies sent their cook in one to fetch me. The English Presbyterian Mission has charming quarters, their only drawback being that they are too near the execution ground, and they may have houses built in front of them. At present they have a lovely view over the bay. Dr. Heyworth has charge of a nice big women’s hospital, where there is an admirable Chinese staff of nurses. It is an infinite pity that there should be so small a European staff—only a man and a woman apiece for the two hospitals, and they have in addition to train their own staff. Miss Paton has charge of the girls’ school, and I must again note how such busy workers found time to give me the most delightful hospitality. Of course there are European hotels in Amoy, Swatow and Foochow, etc., for there is an ever-increasing number of foreign merchants in these cities, but I have had the good fortune to stay with missionary friends, so cannot speak of the hotels from personal experience. It makes travelling for foreigners, however, much simpler than it used to be, and a trip along the China coast is a delightful one, for the scenery is most beautiful and there are all kinds of interesting places to visit—when it does not rain!

Dr. Heyworth took me for an excursion by rail up to the town of Chao Chow, stopping on the way to visit a Chinese family, who have beautiful ancestral halls and some of the finest modern stone carvings in the architecture of these buildings. The stone is green, and the effect of the carving is heightened by cunning touches of green and gold paint. We went by chair across the ricefields from the railway to the village, about two miles distant. The rice was being hastily cleared from the stone threshing floors where it had been husked, on account of a lowering sky, and the village was humming like a busy hive of bees. Mr. Tan and a cousin met us on his threshold, and it was a revelation to see this perfect type of a Chinese country house. The restrained beauty of detail was great; for instance, a large courtyard had an orange curtain as a canopy, casting a subdued golden light over the tall earthenware tubs, from which stately lotus blossoms and leaves reared themselves. The ancestral shrine faced this courtyard and the tablets were of choicest lacquer, surrounded by handsomely carved furniture. Mr. Tan’s grandfather built this family shrine, and it took ten skilled sculptors thirty years to accomplish it. There were bronzes and a wealth of artistic things reflected in the marble floors, the only jarring note being the European lamps and chandeliers. After being introduced to the ladies of the family we were taken to call at two houses, where we made the acquaintance of other members of the family. The most noticeable feature of these houses were the porcelain decorations of the roofs. All sorts of blossoms, rose and white and other colours, stood out in delicate tracery against the sky. These porcelain decorations are a speciality of southern Chinese art, and on the ancestral temple at Canton are most elaborate groups of figures and even landscapes. Panels of open-work pottery are let into the walls.

Mr. Tan took us to see a school supported by his family where a hundred bright smart-looking boys were hard at work. He has a large business in Singapore, and it is a curious fact that from Swatow and district goes forth a continuous stream of colonists to the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong and elsewhere. They always return with accumulated wealth. Swatow itself is the fifth largest trading port of China, and has a population of some ten millions behind it, for which it is the natural outlet.

Mr. Tan took leave of us at the Baptist Chapel, where we received a very friendly welcome. The Southern American Baptists have a great many village stations and about fifty workers, not counting the Chinese staff—a great contrast to our English missions! They do mainly educational and evangelistic, also some medical work. In Swatow they have a hopeful field for social service, but as they live on the further side of the bay I had not time to go across to see their fine buildings, schools, hospital, etc.; they propose building a big church in Swatow. The American Government has established cinema lecture courses for Chinese communities, and they get the missionaries to use them in order to make known American trade and commerce, and American life in general.

We returned by chair to the railway and were met at Chao Chowfu by Dr. Wight. It is a station of the English Presbyterian Mission, but he was the sole European representative there at the time. No doubt the Chinese workers are thereby obliged to take more responsibility and work than would otherwise be the case, but really it is too hard on the one Englishman, and how can a hospital be satisfactorily run on such lines?

There was a severe earthquake some years ago which brought the church and hospital buildings to the ground, but happily all the patients were rescued in time. We saw over the new hospital, which seemed well planned and in good working order. The city needs such a hospital, and one regretted to see the American Mission Colony across the river, so far away from the busy haunts of men. The bridge was as fascinating as it was curious—large masonry piers, with stones reaching from one to the other some fifteen to eighteen feet long. Shops ply a busy trade on the piers and a big shady tree grows out of one of them. In the centre of the Han River there is a wide bridge of swaying boats connected on either side by a stone stairway with the adjacent piers. On the river we noticed most picturesque boats with threefold sails; these belong to the Hakka people, an indigenous race, quite different from the Chinese, who live further inland.

The streets of the town are most attractive, full of amusing shops, and we noticed that private houses had little doorways for their dogs: some of these had suspended doors, so that the dogs could push their way in. As there is a population of some three or four hundred thousand in Chao Chowfu, with a hundred and eighty villages in the adjacent district, it is a busy place; and there are sixty to seventy schools in it. One most interesting Buddhist temple we visited, in which a stone monument has been put up by the city in honour of Dr. Ross and Mr. James for their work during a cholera epidemic.

We returned next day to Swatow, where the guide-book tells you there is nothing to see. On the contrary, I found a great deal to see under Dr. Whyte’s guidance. A temple was being redecorated with beautiful paintings of most delicate and imaginative workmanship all along its walls. The tireless skill and industry of the artists filled me with envy. The trades of the place were fascinating; as for instance the soldering of pans with holes in them. The mender has his boiling metal in a portable heater and handles it with a glove, dabbing little patches round the hole till it is filled up. While watching with absorbed interest I felt a stealthy hand taking a few stray cash out of my pocket, but the thief was so inexperienced that when I caught his hand he dropped the cash into mine! Another interesting but rather hot sight was the blowing of glass lamp-chimneys. Yet another less pleasing industry was the canning of lychees; about a hundred dirty little girls are employed in it. I will draw a veil over this, or no one would eat the delicacy, which I had greatly enjoyed up to that time. A vision of Tiptree flashed across my mind: it would be a beautiful thing to have Tiptree in China. The fruits at Swatow are so lovely: to see the stalls piled up with pomeloes, pineapples, peaches, lychees, bananas, dragon’s eyes and other fruit make one’s mouth water. Equally beautiful—though horrible in smell—are the fish stalls, but here the names are quite beyond me.

One afternoon we had an amusing ride through the ricefields, where the process of harvesting was in full swing. The vehicle for such travel is a comfortable wicker chair to hold two persons (first class), or four (second class) in a less comfortable chair. The chairs are on runners, on a light railway line; they are pushed by swift coolies, so that they go at a good pace. Extra cash = express speed!

We met a few missionaries here on their way for a summer holiday to a health resort, but it takes time and money to reach any such place, and travelling up-country here seems very fatiguing, especially with slender means. I regretfully parted from the congenial group of missionaries who had conspired to give me such a pleasant time, and set off with several ladies for Hong Kong.